On the day in 1987 when he sang and played guitar for the pope, the barefoot musician had no grand expectations: “I really thought it would be ‘clap-clap-clap-clap’ and my life would go back to normal.”

John Paul II embraces guitarist Tony Melendez, who was born without arms, at a conference in Los Angeles in 1987.

Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinelphoto via AP

Instead, the song he performed became Tony Melendez’s new reality: Never Be the Same.

He was born without arms, a birth defect caused by the drug thalidomide sometimes prescribed for pregnant women in the 1950s and ’60s for nausea. Melendez grew up learning to do everything with his toes and feet — open doors, turn pages, throw a Frisbee, play the guitar.

The self-described “toe-picker” played and sang at churches across Southern California. When he was 25, he performed at John Paul II’s meeting with young people in Los Angeles. Visibly moved, the pope left his seat, walked to the stage, reached up and kissed Melendez. Then he applauded with hands raised, saying over and over, “Tony, Tony, Tony.” The crowd roared.

“Tears were just welling up in my eyes,” he recalls. “And the Holy Father said, ‘My wish for you is that you continue to give hope to others and continue in what you are doing.’ I realized at that moment that I could do it with just my music.”

Interest in Melendez exploded: TV talk shows, interviews, concerts, an autobiography, record albums. “My telephone, for a week solid, would start ringing at 6 in the morning until 6:30 or 7:30 at night,” he says. “Just hang it up, and boom! It would ring again.”

After the attention subsided, he built a career in inspirational music.

“The pope was an example to me: Don’t give up on what I’m doing, even with all the fame that can bring you down,” says Melendez, 43. “He’s a saint in my eyes already. He took the Vatican to the world. You didn’t have to go visit him. … That’s why when people call, I go. He passed on a little of his responsibility with just a simple kiss.”